This video is from the ALC group, it is not my personal video. It gives a good sense of life in camp, on the road, and the people behind the ride. There are more videos posted on YouTube, for those who might want to watch more footage.

Great weekend in Chico for Isabella’s baptism and some family fun. It was about 100 degrees during the day! Chris and Liz went all out with the celebration – stellar food, an amazing cake and flower gelatin desserts like I have never seen, a jumpy house for the kids and little pool for cooling off, a friend playing acoustic guitar and singing songs in the back yard. It was a great party!

View the photos on Flickr. My camera isn’t taking the best photos… I have to mess around with the settings. The outdoor shots are looking great, but everything in low light looks kinda blurry.

Here’s a fun video of Nora trying to cool off and get out some of the “crazies” in downtown Chico.

Nora singing the Hina Matsuri Song. Hina means doll and matsuri means festival, so Hina Matsuri is literally Doll Festival (it used to be called Girls’ Day). There’s a tradition in Japan of displaying special dolls for Hina Matsuri on a tiered stand. Girls also dress up specially on this day in their best kimonos. Some girls will dress up like the dolls and have little parties.

Basically translated to:

“Let’s light the lanterns on the tiered stand.
Let’s put peach blossoms on the tiered stand.
Five court musicians are playing flutes and drums.
Today is a happy Dolls’ Festival.”

Here’s a great video of Nora’s school marching in the parade for the Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival) last weekend. It is a Flickr video, and I can’t figure out how to embed it into this blog, so click the link or the photo, and you will go to the video page.

The girls in the green and white cheerleader outfits are the Rosa Parks Drill Team. You can pick out Nora close to the person filming the action with her big puffy white parka under her hapi coat, as it was really windy and chilly that day! Her teacher Ms. Tsukamoto is a few people in front of Nora.